Chișinău

A wooded valley on the western edge of the centre, wrapped around a long lake, the "Valley of the Mills" is where Chișinău comes to walk, jog, row and sit in the shade. A grand stone staircase, built in the Soviet period, climbs from the lake shore towards the city, and a path loops all the way round the water, passing cafés, a summer beach area and a small funfair. It's a pleasant first stop for getting a feel for daily life, and an easy place to escape the heat on a summer evening.

TipThe full lake circuit takes about an hour on foot; the stairs are best climbed in the cool of the morning.

Housed in an eye-catching building of the early twentieth century, decorated in a Moorish-inspired style, this is the oldest museum in Moldova and one of its most enjoyable. The natural history halls lead through the geological eras to the star exhibit, the fossil skeleton of a deinotherium, a huge prehistoric relative of the elephant found in Moldova. Upstairs, the ethnography rooms show rural costume, carpets, pottery and the "casa mare", the best room of a traditional Moldovan house, kept for guests and celebrations. There's also a small botanical garden in the courtyard.

TipThe museum is closed on Mondays and on the last Wednesday of each month.

A copy of Rome's Capitoline wolf suckling Romulus and Remus stands outside this neoclassical former school, a reminder of the Latin roots that Moldovans share with Romanians. Inside, the collections run from Stone Age tools and the painted pottery of the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture to the medieval principality of Moldavia and the twentieth century. The highlight is the treasury, where gold and silver pieces span several thousand years, from prehistoric ornaments to Dacian, Greek and medieval jewellery.

TipThe museum is closed on Mondays. While building works continue, the entrance is on the side street (Strada Mitropolit Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni) rather than the main façade.

Chișinău's triumphal arch, sometimes called the Holy Gates, stands at the head of the cathedral square on the main boulevard. It was put up in the early 1840s to celebrate the Russian Empire's victory over the Ottomans, which had brought the region under Russian rule, and it is a modest, elegant structure compared with the arches of Paris or Bucharest. A large clock sits beneath the upper storey, and its bell was cast from captured Turkish cannon, according to local tradition. Across the boulevard is the government building, and beyond it the square where Moldovans gathered in 1989 to demand their language and independence.

The city's main Orthodox cathedral is a neoclassical church of the 1830s, square in plan with a columned portico on each side and a low dome, set in a shady park in the very centre. In Soviet times it was closed and used as an exhibition hall, and its separate bell tower was blown up in 1962; both have since been restored, the tower rebuilt in the late 1990s. Inside, the walls are covered in modern icons and frescoes, and services, with their chanting and candles, are well worth catching. The surrounding Cathedral Park is a hub of the city, with flower sellers along one edge.

TipDress modestly, with shoulders covered; women may want a scarf for the head during services.

The oldest park in Chișinău, laid out in the early nineteenth century, faces the cathedral across the main boulevard. Its entrance is guarded by the bronze statue of Stephen the Great, the fifteenth-century prince of Moldavia who fought off the Ottomans and founded dozens of churches, and who remains the national hero; the monument, unveiled in 1928, is the symbol of the city and a favourite meeting point. Inside, an avenue of busts of Romanian-language writers known as the Alley of Classics leads among fountains, chess players and benches, past a bust of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who spent three years of exile in the town in the 1820s. His small house nearby is now a museum.

TipFloral tributes are laid at Stephen's statue on national days; it's a good place to see local ceremonies.

The sprawling Piața Centrală, a few blocks east of the cathedral, is the place to see what Moldovans eat. Indoor halls hold butchers, cheese counters stacked with crumbly brânză, pickles and jars of honey, while outdoor rows overflow with tomatoes, peppers, cherries, apricots, grapes and walnuts, depending on the season. Around the edges are clothes, hardware and stalls selling homemade wine and spirits in plastic bottles. It's noisy, crowded and entirely un-touristy, and the best way to understand the country's farming roots.

TipGo in the morning, carry small notes in lei, and keep a hand on your bag; the crowds attract pickpockets.

Just south of Chișinău, beneath the village of Mileștii Mici, lie the old limestone quarries that supplied the city's building stone. The tunnels, which run for some 200 kilometres, of which around 55 are used for wine, were turned into cellars in the late 1960s and now hold what Guinness World Records listed as the largest wine collection in the world, with well over a million bottles. Tours drive through the galleries, whose streets carry names of grape varieties, to tasting halls deep underground, where a constant cool temperature keeps the wine, and visitors, at about 12 to 14 degrees all year.

TipBook ahead by phone or email; prices rise after 5pm and at weekends. Bring a warm layer even in August.

In the far south-east, close to where the Dniester reaches the Ukrainian border, the Purcari estate is one of Moldova's oldest and best-known wineries, founded in 1827. Its signature red, Negru de Purcari, is a dark blend built around the local Rara Neagră grape and was famously admired at European courts in the nineteenth century. The château, with its brick cellars, has been restored with a small hotel, restaurant and tasting rooms among the vineyards, making it a good overnight escape from the city. It is about two hours' drive from Chișinău.

TipTastings and stays need booking through the winery. Combine it with other estates in the Ștefan Vodă wine region if you're driving.

Set in the forested Codri hills west of the capital, Căpriana is one of the oldest monasteries in Moldova, first recorded in the fifteenth century and linked with Stephen the Great, who rebuilt it. Its stone Church of the Dormition dates from the sixteenth century, and newer churches and monks' cells surround a peaceful courtyard. Closed and badly neglected under Soviet rule, it has been carefully restored since independence and is again a working community. The surrounding woods, part of the Codri nature reserve area, are good for gentle walks.

TipIt's around 40 kilometres from Chișinău and makes an easy half-day trip, perhaps combined with the Cricova cellars.

The other great underground wine city lies just north of Chișinău. Cricova's cellars, begun in the 1950s in former limestone mines, form a maze of some 120 kilometres of tunnels several dozen metres below ground, lined with barrels and named like streets. Visitors are driven through the galleries before tasting the sparkling wines made in the traditional bottle-fermented way, for which Cricova is best known. The collection includes old vintages and bottles that once belonged to famous figures, and the grand tasting halls have hosted presidents and astronauts.

TipAll visits are by booked tour, with several levels from a basic one-hour visit to long tastings with a meal; arrive on time, as late arrivals lose their slot.

Moldova's single most memorable landscape lies about an hour north of the capital, where the little Răut river loops through a deep limestone gorge. On the cliff above the bend, a cave monastery was cut into the rock centuries ago by Orthodox monks; today a monk-tended chapel and cells can be visited through a narrow passage, with a balcony hanging over the valley. The ridge also holds a white-walled church of the early twentieth century, the remains of a medieval Moldavian town and of a fourteenth-century Golden Horde city, and traces of settlements going back to the Getae. The whole area is a protected historical and archaeological complex, and is on Moldova's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status.

TipStay overnight in one of the guesthouses in Butuceni village below the cliffs, which serve home-cooked meals and offer walks along the gorge at dawn and sunset. Wear modest clothing to enter the cave church.

On a steep cliff above the Dniester, Țipova is the largest cave monastery in Moldova, a series of churches, cells and passages hollowed out of the rock on several levels. Its origins are uncertain and probably very old, and local legend says Stephen the Great married in one of its churches. A path leads down from the village past the cave churches to a gorge with small waterfalls. The cliff paths are steep and uneven, but the views over the broad river are superb. Note that the far bank is Transnistria; stay on the right (west) bank.

TipWear sturdy shoes, take water and allow a couple of hours to explore and climb back up.

North of Țipova, in a green ravine running down to the Dniester, Saharna's Holy Trinity Monastery is one of Moldova's most important pilgrimage sites. The monastery was founded in the late eighteenth century beside an older cave hermitage cut into the rock, and pilgrims climb to a cliff-top rock said to bear the footprint of the Virgin Mary. The gorge has a string of small waterfalls and walking trails, and is a protected landscape. Saharna and Țipova are usually combined in one long day from Chișinău.

In the far north, on the Dniester facing Ukraine, Soroca's round stone fortress is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the region. It grew from a wooden fort built under Stephen the Great in 1499 to guard a river crossing; the stone citadel, a perfect circle with four round towers and a square gate tower, was built in the 1540s. The town is also known for its large Roma community, whose ornate mansions on the hill above the centre are a local curiosity, and for the Candle of Gratitude, a hilltop monument with views over the river.

TipSoroca is about three hours from Chișinău by road, so consider staying a night or combining it with the northern monasteries.